Redemption
by Inanis-spera
Summary: Redemption is not a change of mind, but a change of heart.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Puella Magi Madoka Magica is owned by SHAFT and Aniplex. If desired by them this story will be removed.

* * *

Kyouko picked herself off the ground once more. Like she always had.

Her legs refused to cooperate and barely staggered back to her feet. She clutched her side. Kyouko hadn't remembered the slash that opened her, but it was still there. Her hand was soaked instantly. Hard to see. Madoka wasn't moving.

"I know you can hear me." She bobbled from one foot to the next. No answer.

"You're worrying everyone." Sayaka continued to ignore her.

"You're not like this." It was so hard to speak. So hard to see. A blue and gray haze before her.

"You wanted to help people. To be a hero." Sayaka turned her back to Kyouko. The red-head tried to summon the passion, the torch she once bore.

Nothing. Her leg felt wet. She wobbled closer. She could make anyone listen to her once. Sayaka had ignored before and now she wasn't any less stubborn. Kyouko's head swam. Too much effort to stay upright.

Her fingers hurt, everything hurt. Tears fell from the agony. Sayaka couldn't abandon all that she was. Not she had. Had to make her listen. Bring her back. Somehow.

"You believed. You were right." She drifted away. _Listen to me, listen to me._

"Please, Sayaka. Come back." Sayaka paid no attention to her and conducted her orchestra. Kyouko couldn't yell over the noise it made. She hated it.

"Your music sucks too." She was sweating heavily and her lungs didn't work the way they should have. A cough, blood spewed from her mouth and ran down her throat. Her hands trembled.

"Is that why Kyouske didn't like you?" Pain everywhere. Copper in her mouth. Stagger, stagger.

"Answer me." A thin pane of glass in a typhoon.

"I'll steal him if you don't answer me." _Why is my boot going squish? _She stopped, her body unable to move any farther. Agony lancing out from her ribs. Kyouko couldn't breathe. Her sight went dark for a second. Her jaw shook. The wave of pain passed after a moment.

"Hey, how do you do that no pain trick?" Sayaka would tell her. They were sort-of friends.

Still nothing.

"I know you're listening and its rude to ignore people." _It hurts. It hurts._

Nothing.

"Answer me." She hefted her spear to throw." Answer-" Someone slammed into her, knocking her to the floor. A whirl of amethyst and white. Kyouko's stomach reeled. A miracle it remained where it was. The gaping wound in her side ripped open and bled heavily. Her back was drenched. The barrier swirled and colors blended. Kyouko knew she wasn't dead. She wasn't on fire.

Her muscles failing her head lolled to the side to purple and white blur that slammed into her. It was a fight to see anything. Kyouko's eyes focused just long enough to see the object in Homura's hand. A thin white tube with a red button on the end.

_No._ Her hands lanced out. Pain a distant nightmare. _Nononono not her! She believed, she was true._ A million miles away and Homura just inches. _Please not her. Punish me! I ran! I left people to die._ A thousand miles, maybe half an inch. _Please God not her, please God I'm sorry._Contact.

In the beginning God's light had brought life and hope to the universe.

Homura's light took it away.

* * *

Kyouko lie on the ground. Failure her only company. She heard Madoka stir. Too late for anything. Steps getting closer. She clamped her eyes shut. Nothing for her to see. Nothing she wanted to see.

Click.

"There was nothing you could do." The sky is blue. Kyouko's eyes opened of their own accord. A joke, a nightmare, a horror.

Reality.

"Walpurgisnacht is coming" Water is wet.

"We have to be ready." Soon you will be her.

Kyouko looked away. She didn't want it to be true. Good deeds were rewarded. Bad people were punished. It wasn't supposed to be this way. She should have died. Sayaka should still be alive. Kyouko could fix half of it. She could take her soul gem and squeeze just hard enough. Tears. The coward in her wanted to take Sayaka and leave. Hurt her like so many other girls just for another day of existence. Take her soulgem and place it next to the Seed. Pass her darkness away and pretend.

Click.

_Coward._

* * *

Kyouko struggled to walk. Without Madoka she would never have gotten up. She had to lean heavily on the smaller girl just to limp along. Her body broken and her mind walking in dark places.

_It should have been me. Sayaka is the hero. She wanted to save people, she believed. She was just. It should have been me. I let people die. I didn't care about anyone. I left everything I was behind. She should have lived._

"Are you okay?" Madoka interrupted. Kyouko wobbled her head toward her. Madoka would never leave anyone in trouble, but the thought of pushing her away and running was clear in her eyes. Kyouko inhaled in agony.

"I'm fine" she couldn't be like this, "I'm fine." Sayaka had been the hero was she had once was. "I'm fine." A hero she could still be.

If she tried.

Kyouko's life dripping away, the two staggered to the red-head's hotel room. Kyouko kept them away from eyes human and electronic. She didn't want Madoka to get caught up in this. The elevator almost dropped her. The surge buckled her knees and only a quick grab by Madoka kept the dying Puella Magi from the ground. Kyouko whispered a thank-you, but only blood escaped her lips. Her life described in minutes and seconds.

Kyouko closed her eyes, blind and nearly helpless. Instinct drug her to the room she lay Sayaka down. All strength had nearly fled. Madoka struggled to kept the bleeding girl on her feet. She too, had a friend to say good-bye to. Kyouko's bleeding slowly, there wasn't much left to lose. They reached the door. Kyouko pulled her key out and failed to get the lock to open. Madoka gently pushed her hand away and unlatched the door.

Her body failed her. Kyouko fell the last few steps to Sayaka. Her body was untouched. The crusader's soul in her pocket. A hope flared and died. Her soul, even as a grief seed, should be enough to bring her back. A fevered dream drowned in the black ocean of reality. Her body had been there when she'd fallen. Beyond all hope.

No-one had any hope.

Kyouko propped herself up. Her father had known the last rites. He wasn't here either. She wasn't ready to say goodbye. Her dreams, her crusade meant something. It couldn't be laid to rest in the ground. Where it's only company would be worms.

An impulse. Kyouko dropped her soul gem on Sayaka's stomach, near where the fallen knight had kept hers.

Nothing.

_Of course. _The light faded._ Why would it work? _It was hard to stay upright._ Nothing I do ever goes right. _She felt herself falling._ Why God, why?_She closed her eyes forever.

And Kyouko opened Sayaka's eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Puella Magi Madoka Magica is owned by SHAFT and Aniplex. If desired by them this story will be removed.

* * *

"Tell-tell me everything about her" Kyouko asked. She could see Madoka's confusion and pain in the younger girl's eyes. Madoka had lost her oldest friend, watched Kyouko bleed to death and then get her friend back, in form only.

"Sayaka, she is-is a good friend and-and," the words were too much for the suffering girl. All her life she'd known Sayaka. Madoka had watched Kyouko carry Sayaka's lifeless body to her. Now were witnessed Kyouko take the corpse for her own. It was just too much for her.

Kyouko didn't know what to say. This was hurting the poor girl. She hadn't meant to cause her pain. She'd hurt enough people. She wanted to help and she'd failed all her life.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I-I just wanted," Kyouko tried to find the purpose she had once a long time ago. It was alien to her. A strange thing, to have lost everything. Even herself. It was a short time before she spoke again "I should have died. She fought for people, believed in something more."

Once she always knew what to say.

It had been a long time. "I'm sorry."

Madoka struggled telling Kyouko all about Sayaka, the friend that the red-head would be spending all her life imitating. They reached Sayaka's home, to complete the cover-up of the young girl's death. It had been days since the wayward knight had run away. Her family destroyed itself with guilt. Madoka rang the bell. A race to the door, hope against all odds, to see their daughter again. A terror that that it was a sad policeman. The threshold tore open.

Hope.

Elation.

Joy.

Happiness

"SAYAKA!" They tackled the pretender, a mass of words crushed them close. Kyouko apologized, trying to be the daughter they thought she was. To try and make them believe the lie.

* * *

Kyoko stood awkwardly next to Hitomi. School wouldn't wait and Sayaka had missed some days already. It meant pressing her imitation of the fallen girl farther than Kyouko was comfortable with. Being alone with the fallen girl's family pressed her bad enough. They were too happy to notice what was wrong with their daughter. Long enough and they wouldn't question. It wasn't like her mother and father would think that someone replaced her.

Hitomi might. How much did she know? She thought someone mentioned Hitomi being Kissed. Did they tell her why? Was she still oblivious? Was she wondering why someone she thought was dead was standing next to her? Uncertainty ran circles in her head. What seemed like the perfect thing to do in the bleeding night looked so horrible in the cutting day.

Madoka could at least quietly point out what she should be doing. Sayaka and the green haired girl were apparently long-time friends and Kyoko had only the thinnest idea how they acted to each other. Were they close? Did they share secrets? Were they friendly, distant, or joking? Kyouko didn't think she could make Hitomi believe her act just yet. She didn't want to risk it. Her only save was that they been fighting over a boy and things should be weird between the two. If she did something wrong it helped. The two stood there.

Gentle Hitomi waited for Sayaka to say that everything was okay. That they were still friends. Kyoko stood away, not knowing. Madoka saved them both. Her fake smile detectable by no one, she walked to her friends pretending the world was okay. Knowing full well it never would be again. Madoka greeted her friends and Kyoko did he best to not be herself. They walked together. A peace overseen by the shredded nerves of the eternally caring Madoka. They arrived, a few words mended between them. Kyoko took the seat Madoka quietly pointed to her. Homura gave a small glance at 'Sayaka' and nothing more.

* * *

The day mercifully folded to an end. Madoka walked Kyouko through Sayaka's routines. The friendship between Hitomi and the pretend Sayaka was repaired. Kyouko didn't know the boy. It was easy to let go. It was a weight tossed away from their minds. Kyouko was frrer to act and Hitomi opened up to her 'friend'. With the conflict ended it the world turned again. The three joked and laughed like they always had. Almost. Hitomi never knew. It was the same as forever and ever. Time dwindled on. They had to go their separate way. Madoka followed Kyouko. The price for Sayaka's misbehavior. It bothered neither. It gave them time to talk. To learn and plan. AS they approached Homura's apartment Kyouko saw a newspaper stand. She grabbed a paper. Morbidly curious she went to the obituary section. Her old body had been found.

They stopped briefly, Kyoko stood on her own grave. Her body laid to rest next to her family. Her father had been almost right about her. She a witch in progress. Delayed for a time. Maybe she'd die. Sayaka could have made it if not for that boy. A lot of things might have. She came to pay her last respects. To her family, to her old life. She was Sayaka now. She still had no idea what to say. The last time she was here she cursed his name and resolved to live only for herself. Now, here she was. A new, borrowed, stolen, life. To live in a dead girl's body and fight as she had once fought. Maybe stupid, maybe all she could do.

Kyoko stood for too long. Trying to find the words. In the end she found some. Even if they didn't make her feel okay.

"Goodbye."

* * *

"Would you rather be called Kyoko or Sayaka?"

"I'm Sayaka, Kyoko died remember? Buried her and all."

"Yes...Sayaka. Well... Sayaka you've never liked ice lollypops or threw the wrappers on my floor in the past."

'Sayaka' shrugged and kept eating. Homura didn't bother going on about how this would end for the now blue-haired girl. She had more important things to do.

"Walpurgisnatch will come in from this part of the city..."

* * *

Turn blue.

Kyoko stared at her vest, willing it to change colors. After ten minutes it remained red. Her spear was something she'd deal with another day. At least she could pretend that she needed the spear more as she knew the weapon better. Her clothes, however.

No one would know what she was supposed to look like, but it meant a lot to her. Sayaka and her ideals would live on. Though it was looking like her clothes wouldn't. She set the image in her mind. The way she looked. How the cape moved, the colors and the way they caught the light. She pictured it clearly. She was wearing it. She wearing it. She was wearing it. Kyouko opened her eyes.

No she wasn't.

A sigh. _I've wasted too much damn time. I need to be a hero now._

She vowed to have everything ready for Walpurgisnatch.

* * *

A/N: Apologies for taking so long. The part with Kyouko and Hitomi was very difficult to wite and I just wanted it done.


End file.
